ex-girlfriend, Claire Fielding, is also dead. And Ryan, your boyfriend, the one you were eating takeaway food with and watching DVDs with the other night, has a history of violence towards women. A problem with women, in fact. A very serious problem.’ She sat back, her eyes locked on to Sophie like laser beams. ‘Quite a coincidence.’
Sophie looked frantically at Anni.
Anni leaned forward. ‘You want to tell me the truth now?’
Sophie’s head dropped into her hands. ‘No… He’ll kill me…’
‘Yes,’ said Anni, her tone conciliatory yet steely. ‘He very well might. So I’m your only chance, Sophie. You’d better talk to me. Right?’
She nodded.
‘Truth this time.’
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘The truth.’
Phil walked back into the interview room holding a document file. On the file was Ryan Brotherton’s name. He set it on the table, resumed his seat. Brotherton looked expectantly at him. Phil opened the file, glanced at the contents. Raised his eyebrows.
‘Oh, Ryan…’
‘What?’ Brotherton craned his neck forward, trying to see what was written there. Phil moved it further away from him.
‘Jesus, you have been a naughty boy…’ He held his gaze on the pages for a few more seconds, just long enough for Brotherton’s anxiety levels to increase, then flipped the cover of the file closed and looked levelly at him. This was a different Phil from the one who had left the room. He had appeared to be Brotherton’s friend, someone on his side. This new Phil was something different. A professional. A heat-seeking missile zeroing in on his target. And he wasn’t going to miss.
‘Where were you on the night of Wednesday the seventeenth of November?’ he asked.
Brotherton looked startled at Phil’s abrupt tone.
‘Where were you?’
‘I was…’ His eyes slipped away to the left. ‘At home. With Sophie. We watched a DVD, I told you this.’
‘Liar. Where were you?’
‘I told you where I was…’ Eyes straight ahead, imploring, trying to hold Phil’s gaze, saying:
‘You’re lying, Ryan. Where were you? Between eight p.m. and two a.m.? When Claire Fielding, your ex- girlfriend, the mother of your child, was being murdered, where were you?’
‘I’ve told you.’ Eyes left. ‘At home. Watching a DVD. With Sophie. Ask her.’
Phil gave a small, tight smile. ‘We will. Don’t worry about that. Can you trust her?’
‘What?’
‘Can you trust her? To lie for you?’
Eyes away to the left. Thinking. ‘I can trust her. Yeah.’ Defiance in his voice.
Phil sat back, not taking his eyes off the other man. Time for something else. ‘When did Claire first tell you she was pregnant?’
Brotherton thought, looking down to the right. ‘About… five, six months ago.’
‘And what was your reaction?’
‘I’ve told you. I didn’t believe her.’
‘But you soon did.’
Brotherton shrugged.
‘She soon convinced you. Because you told her you wanted her to get rid of it, didn’t you?’
Brotherton stared at him, said nothing.
‘In fact you said that if she didn’t, then you would. With your own hands. Isn’t that right?’
Fear appeared on Brotherton’s face. ‘I… I want my solicitor… I’m not sayin’ another word without my solicitor bein’ present.’
‘We’ve called her, she’s on her way.’
Rage and fear clouded Brotherton’s face. ‘
Phil could barely keep the smile off his face. ‘We phoned your solicitor, Mr Warnock. He’s… unavailable, apparently. But they’re sending someone from the practice. Bit young, but very good, they say.’The smile appeared. ‘She’s just finished working with victims of domestic abuse in a women’s refuge, I think they said. I’m sure she’ll be very interested in all this.’ Phil didn’t know anything of the sort, but he knew what kind of effect his words would have.
Brotherton said nothing. Phil knew he had hit the bullseye. Brotherton would talk to him now.
‘So you offered to give Claire Fielding, your girlfriend, an abortion. With your own bare hands, is that right?’
‘It wasn’t like that…’
Phil leaned across the table. ‘What was it like then, Ryan? Tell me. Make me understand.’
‘She… I didn’t believe her at first. But then I had to.’
‘And you got angry.’
He nodded.
‘You didn’t want a kid around the place. It would stifle you, tie you down, that right?’
Another nod.
‘Too much responsibility. So you made that very generous offer.’
Brotherton said nothing.
‘And what was Claire’s response?’
Brotherton still said nothing.
‘No? I’ll tell you then, shall I? She left you. Summoned up the courage to walk out on you.’
‘No she didn’t. I threw her out.’ His eyes away to the left as he spoke.
‘No you didn’t. That’s a lie. She left you. But you could-n’t take it, could you? Couldn’t take some piece of skirt walking out on you. Especially not a pregnant one. How hurt was your pride?Your ego?’
Brotherton shrugged. ‘Same as anyone else’s.’
‘Same as anyone else’s. So what did you do next?’
‘Nothin’.’
‘Liar.You phoned her. Texted her. Threatened her.’
‘No I didn’t…’
‘Yes you did, Ryan. We’ve got her phone records.’ Not strictly true, thought Phil, but they were on the way. He was confident they would show that he was telling the truth.
Brotherton’s head went down. Phil had been right. He didn’t have time to gloat; he had an advantage. He had to press it.
‘You stalked her?’
‘No.’ Eyes away to the left. A lie.
Phil hid his smile. Another bullseye. ‘Yes you did, Ryan. You stalked her. Why? Because she’d dared to escape, to run away? Because you couldn’t have her where you wanted her to torment? Yeah?’
Silence.
‘So what did you think you would achieve by stalking her? Would that get her back?’
Brotherton said nothing.
Phil regarded him coolly. He was well in the zone now, thinking and acting intuitively. On fire but controlling it.
‘Did you like the feeling of power it gave you, is that it? Do you think it scared her?’
‘Fuck off.’
‘Because you like scaring women, don’t you?’
‘Fuck off!’
‘Like hurting them…’
Brotherton stood up, swinging his arms. ‘Fuck off!’
The uniformed officer waiting at the door stepped forward, ready to grab him if he made a move. Phil got to his
